Thursday, February 7, 2008

Happy Prosperous Chinese New Year!!

Heya all! Here's wishing everyone a great year with loads of good fortune & plentiful wealth (+health)! As a treat to those who are unfamiliar with Chinese culture or Chinese New Year traditions, I have included a brief introduction & yummy photos of the tossing of the ever popular Yee Sang, a Chinese New Year dish!Yee Sang is unique as it originated from either Malaysia(or Singapore), not usually celebrated by the Chinese folks of Mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan! (But if I dare say, slowly, it might cross over culturally, there are even some Thai Chinese folks consuming it too!) Yee Sang actually means raw fish in Chinese, fish is often associated with the homophone, abundance. Thus, Yee Sang is considered symbolic of abundance & prosperity!

As pictured in the photo above, you can see its loaded with many colorful ingredients ranging from shredded vegetables (daikon/japanese radish, carrots), herbs, spices (5-spice powder), ground peanuts/nuts, bits of pomelo fruit, pickled ginger, pickled jellyfish, crunchy crisps, colored beehoon/noodle pieces (they are the ones in red, yellow, green) & slices of raw fish (salmon is most commonly used now), lovely plum sauce, some pepper & a slight pinch of salt. (Note: The ingredients of each Yee Sang dish can vary, depending on where you buy it from or what you prefer. In Kuala Lumpur now, don't be surprised if you find very different versions of Yee Sang such as wholly fruit yee sang as in all ingredients purely come from various fruits!! I'll post piccies if I come across it!)

Everyone is encouraged to toss the Yee Sang! All you need are chopsticks & you're good to go! Using the chopsticks, grab the ingredients and toss them together whilst saying "Jíxiáng Huà" (auspicious wishes) out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year.The higher the toss, the better! (The higher you go, the more wealth you'll get!) Its great fun tossing Yee Sang together with as many family members or friends as possible! Everyone would be tossing, trying to outdo each others' height of the toss!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, check out the following sequence of photos to see the tossing of Yee Sang in action! :P

Well, I hope you've all enjoyed this post!Loads more stuff coming up of course!May you getall that you wish forand more!!